Okay, I have to put my 2 cents in on this one. Our school sent home nomination forms last week. Two positions were left off. Terms are one year. And no one has said anything about changing offices or a changing by-laws. How can they just do that. And elections are to be held on 3/11/. Last year our officers were hand picked by the principal and has it back fired no one has done their job. What I want to know if no one is nominated for a office can PTO. Our by-laws say nothing about if no one is nominated.
We do hold elections each May. We send out a letter every April asking for nominations to every office. If someone is nominated we then ask the nominee if they would be willing to run for that position. If there is more than one nomination for any position, then an election is held during the May meeting by ballot. If someone is unable to attend the May meeting, they can request a ballot in advance and return it signed in a sealed envelope before the meeting. Then the votes are counted during the meeting and announced. Most of the time we don't end up with more than two nominees for any one position, but once in awhile do.
I just did a newsletter that let everyone know what the officers, the board, etc. do then informed them of the upcoming elections and asked if they were interested to phone the current President. Currently we know that the President and at least one Vice President will be the same, the only officers that we need to find people for are the treasurer, secretary and second Vice President if the current one is not interested. Although we have it set up for committee etc., currently that is not needed since we are primarily going by people willing to do the work invovled and take the initiative. We hope in years to come that we will need elections for the amount of people who want to be officers and do the bulk of the work.
I feel that how we do things is O.K. because everyone at the beginning of the year has good intentions but seem to slide back. We are such dedicated parents and to try and ensure that all the hard work we have done the past 2 years rolls over well, we look to the one's that has helped us through out the year. If more than 1 came forward or even acted interested I quess we would have an election but we never have had that problem before. Someone ask, "Well, how do we know that there is not some incoming kindergarten parents interested?". Well, I believe that its easier to start out helping w/ committees before you step up to be an officer so you will completely understand the work load of all PTO/PTA officiers. Am I wrong? Even though we're the PTO we still welcome everyone that shows an interest in helping us with anything! We try sooo hard not to be clickish!!!
We have a nominating committee and elections each year - BUT we always run with a single slate.
This method might backfire on us some day, and if more than one person truly wanted to run, we'd have real elections. As is, it's worked well. We submit a single slate of officers for election at the general meeting, so it's a mere formality. (But there is a vote.)
We have two-year term limits on the elected officers, so that ensures some turnover. The nominating committee (with big input from the Principal) approaches people and sorts it all out. Although, technically, we only need to elect the 5 officers, we also fill the many of major committee chair positions at the same time.
Usually it's more a case of talking people into a leadership role than any competition for one. There's usually plenty of room for anyone who wants to run something.
Note we do have the infrastrure and process for a true election, so if it were necessary it would be done.
